Whistling Woods’ student wins awards at Ashvita Film festival

Ashvita Film festivalMumbai: Whistling Woods International’s junior student of direction Chirag Arora won two awards at the Ashvita Film Festival held in Chennai.

His movie Gir Gaya won the Best Short Fiction in the short fiction film category and Best Film award from among 700 entries. It’s the story of Anmol, a mentally challenged boy, and his mother who’s the world to him. The film talks about the mother and son exploring their relationship that is based on forgiveness, where new life starts everyday.

Arora said, "Every human being on this planet has a unique story to tell. I am fortunate that I am in a profession where I can tell my unique stories to the world in my own way through film making. I wanted to make this film since a long time, a film on special children who needs special care and attention towards them. My film Gir Gaya talks about how difficult it is to understand children who need special guidance and care, what kind of problems they face and how they are not able to bridge a gap between their world (mind) and the actual world (mind of other people)."

He added, "Winning two awards at Ashvita Film Festival Chennai is an amazing experience. The film competition was tough as we got to know at the event that there were almost seven hundred films participating in the film competition. The feeling of getting appreciation for your work is immense, especially when people watch your film and talk about the sound design in the film, the lighting, the camera, the performances of the actors, the production design etc."

The event was organised in Satyam cinemas Chennai by Ashvin Rajagopalan where prominent film makers from Tamil Film Industry were present to facilitate the event and who judge the films. Some of the judges were Dharani (Director of films like Dil, Dhool, Gilli, Kurivi), Fauzia (Cinematographer of Phir Milenge, Mudhal, Mudhal, Mudhal Varai) and Arvind Krishna (Cinematographer of 12G rainbow colony, Pudhu Pettai, Kuselan).

Other institutes who were competing in the film festival were Satyajit Ray Film Institute of India (Kolkata), LV Prasad film Institute (Chennai), National Institute of Design, Film and Television Institute of India (Pune).